A creativity challenge taken up by a science girl

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Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you have a wonderful day, even if you don’t celebrate a holiday today. Today’s cat is our Christmas card for the year. Hubby and I agreed on an image & I cut the block (that alone took about 6 hours). Then I ordered the cards and envelopes (lesson learned: if you …

I bought jewelry findings meant for use with clay, a few weeks ago. I had the idea of painting a cat of my own and pouring resin to finish them off. So tonight I painted some cats for this project. I will collect a few other things before I mix and pour resin, so they are actually waiting for finalization. My original plan had been to do these with oil paints, but my lungs were so reactive for days after the last oil paint, I didn’t want to use them again with the house all closed up now. So I broke out my as yet unused watercolor tubes. The colors were wonderfully saturated and bright compared to the cakes I was using. While I don’t love these earrings as they are, I will let them percolate in my mind for a while before I figure out what I want them to look like so that I’d actually wear them. Although I am NO fashion queen, I am ridiculously picky about what I will and won’t wear. So this project may undergo a redo in the future. We’ll see. I did have fun painting all the little silhouettes. I started out with just one shape (in the blue circles on the right) and then got more confident to paint more of a variety. My idea was to have really bright paints for the earrings and I liked the idea of a little cat silhouette, but I’m not sure they work together quite as I wanted.

Today’s suggestion from Noah Scalin’s book that I used was to make something with my junk mail. I was out on the road visiting friends when I started this. And I chose it because it was somewhat easy to bring junk mail, pens, scissors and glue sticks with me.

As usual, this went through some changes from initial concept to finished project. It was originally going to be a series of white cats this shape all coming out of a mailer photo of mountains and fanning out, but the cats are cut from envelopes and proved too flimsy to stand up. This cat is actually two envelope layers glued together and then glued to card-stock junk mail to give her enough support to lay (mostly) level when the mailer is opened. I did like it without colors and I wish I had taken a photo of that stage. Oh well. Then I decided to use watercolor pencils to make her the same colors as the “other models” on the mailer. And I wanted to make her “pop” a little when you opened the mailer, so I put her on a basic pop-up step.

Not one of the ones I love, but I did enjoy learning a little about pop-ups. Maybe this could have been more elaborate, but I need to get to bed.Not sure how the next two days are going to work out for the cat project. I have two 14 hour work days + 1 hour commute scheduled. We’ll see. I’m hoping to manage to make cats anyway. But if I don’t post anything, never fear! I WILL be back in 3 days! (I know you’re thinking, “whew!” Right?! JK! LOL!)

And I am looking for help. I have an idea for a future project but don’t have it all figured out yet. I am wanting to do voice work and read a short story about a cat, but I need to find a story that’s not copyright protected. So if you know a good site to search or have other suggestions, please pipe up and comment below! I greatly appreciate it!

The challenge that I took on today was to make something with masking tape. Which really stumped me for a while. I sat down with no idea of what I was going to do. This was done while visiting with friends, eating chocolate and drinking wine. Good times!
I used a photo to design the cat and an exacto knife to cut the pattern. It was a group decision to photograph it plain and then add color. I used watercolor pencils and then water to blend the colors.

Today’s cat project started with me making an origami cat at lunch today, with some idea of building a mobile. But I have some additional planning and supplies to get before that can happen. So when I got home late tonight, I started working on a sign my hubby asked for, to replace the really fancy sticky note that’s been on one of our doors for a couple of years. It leads to an office with some gear we really want to keep them and their hair out of. So I made a first sign that I liked (above) until I made the cat rather muddy. It’s okay, but I wanted to make a nicer cat.

So I started a second sign. The cat came out well by herself, but when I added the text to the paper she was on, I messed up. I had to cut out the “good cat” and put it with a copy of “good text.” Then I mucked that up by trying to add flowers for color – bad idea. Ended up gluing the cat over the failed flowers… and here it is. Unfortunately you can clearly see the seam where the cat is glued on in real life, while you can’t this photo. Maybe I’ll replace this sign in the future when my watercolor skills have improved some.This cat (below) I was really happy with. It’s tiny, but it looks similar to the photo I was working from – an accomplishment with my rudimentary watercolor skills!

I thought this was a great assignment! Write a 10 word love story and illustrate it. I wrote the text yesterday and played around with laying it out and illustrating it today. They came out okay. Compared to what I had envisioned, they’re not great. And that’s okay. Part of this project for me is learning what I like, don’t like, what I’d like to practice. Watercolor skills and good drawing skills are needed! I think writing the little stories and picturing great illustrations in my mind was the most fun part for me. (And my apologies for unreadable handwriting, so I typed out the stories for your reading pleasure.)“Cat sees mouse. Eyes meet. True love. Happily ever after.”

“”Forbidden love between cat and mouse started with a glance.”

“Cat spies beautiful mouse. Long talks. Begin dating. First kiss.”

(All ink +/- watercolor +/- pencil. Finished two are on watercolor paper. Others are on a variety of scrap and drawing papers.)

I lent my book to a friend, so I’m on my own for ideas for a few days. At first the world was going to be green and blue with land and water, and then it got influenced by my watching the opening art of the wonderful “Usagi Drop“. (Love “Bunny Drop”!) It has been a long time since I used watercolors and I was never very adept. The sky was fun & with practice I am sure it could be better. And I got to play with my new ink pens and watercolors.

Huh, it is rather infused with that Japanese cuteness vibe, isn’t it? Oh well.

I have learned producing one item a day really makes me give up any perfectionism. Which is a flaw I love – trying to be perfect. I would probably on my own do this 20 times different ways before I had one I was really happy with… but there just isn’t time. And then I wouldn’t even like it anyway. So here I am, doing “good enough”!!

Click the colorful 365 below to find out more about the book I’m inspired by and see other 365 projects.

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